The present invention relates to an animal twitch, and more particularly to a twitch which is twistable to tightly clamp a portion of an animal's lip and which can be maintained in its twisted configuration by engagement with a lead rope attached to the animal.
Twitches used to control an animal during a shoeing or veterinary operation or the like are known in the prior art. One type of twitch known includes a flexible looped cord adapted to be twisted tightly about a portion of the animal's lip. Absent any provision for maintaining the twitch in its twisted configuration, the person performing the operation on the animal, or an additional person, is required to hold the twist-configured twitch with one hand. Another type of twitch known in the prior art is a nutcracker device having a pair of jaws which are tightly clampable about a portion of the animal's lip, permitting one-man operation. The nutcracker type device is inherently more complex, and hence more expensive than the above-described loop-type twitch.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a simple loop-type animal twitch designed to permit one-man operation.
More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a horse twitch which may be secured about a portion of the animal's lip, and maintained in securing position by engaging the twitch with a lead rope attached to the animal.
The present invention includes an elongate, generally L-shaped body member having attached at one end thereof an elongate, flexible looped cord which is twistable about a portion of an animal's lip when the twitch is rotated in one direction, to tighten the cord about the animal's lip. Provided at the other end of the body member is a ring for receiving therethrough a lead rope attached to the animal, wherein the twist-configured twitch is prevented from rotating in the opposite direction.